பெண்களே, கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரிகளிடம் ஜாக்கிரதை!

டெலவேரை சேர்ந்த ஒரு பெண்மணி கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரியார் தன்னை கற்பழிக்க முனைந்தார் என்று குற்றம் சாட்டியுள்ளார்.

ALLEGED SEX ABUSE: Del. woman claims priest tried to rape her as child
By RANDALL CHASE • Associated Press Writer • August 15, 2008

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WILMINGTON — A Claymont woman filed a lawsuit Friday claiming that she was sexually abused as a child by a priest who also preyed on other young children.


Attorneys for Mary Dougherty, 55, filed the lawsuit in Sussex County Superior Court against the Diocese of Wilmington and Holy Rosary parish in Claymont. The lawsuit is the first filed in Delaware on behalf of a female survivor of alleged priest abuse.

Dougherty claims that she was abused by the Rev. Leonard Mackiewicz when she was about 13 years old, and that he also abused at least nine other children.

Mackiewicz, who was removed from the ministry in 1987 and died in 1994, is among 20 diocesan priests with substantiated allegations of child sexual abuse.

The lawsuit claims church officials knew that Mackiewicz was abusing young boys and girls but did nothing to protect them while allowing him to serve as a priest for 30 years. The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages.

Bob Krebs, a spokesman for the diocese, said he had not seen a copy of the lawsuit and could not comment.

Mackiewicz was an assistant pastor at Holy Rosary from 1964 to 1967. According to the lawsuit, he also served as director of the parish’s Catholic Youth Organization and was a longtime Boy Scout chaplain.

Dougherty claims that Mackiewicz began making unwanted sexual advances against her in 1966, including groping her and other young girls underwater at a CYO pool party, and pinning her against a wall and rubbing himself against her in the church basement during a CYO meeting.

The alleged abuse culminated in an incident during a CYO trip to Indian River Inlet on Delaware’s southern coast, where Mackiewicz allegedly tackled her on a beach and tried to rape her.

The lawsuit claims Mackiewicz tore at her clothes and repeatedly said: “This is power.”

Dougherty said she was eventually saved when the Rev. Leonard Kempski, another Holy Rosary priest, happened upon the scene and pulled Mackiewicz off of her.

“If it hadn’t been for Rev. Kempski, she would have been raped,” said Dougherty’s attorney, Stephen Neuberger. “Rev. Kempski is still alive, and we will be deposing him.”

Dougherty, whose family includes three aunts who were nuns and an uncle who served as a priest, said she reported the incident to her mother when she returned home. Her mother responded by slapping her and telling her that “no priest would ever do something like that,” according to the lawsuit.

Dougherty claims the abuse stopped after she confronted Mackiewicz in the church confessional the following week and threatened to kill him if he ever touched her again.